William Knight

William Knight is a co-founding partner of Emerisque Brands, an East-West technology based investment firm for branded consumer products). He is also a partner in Potentia Inc. His responsibility covers  emerging markets including China.

As a Board member of or adviser to companies with a focus on the Indo-Asia Pacific region, he has been co-chairing the South Asia group at the  UK Institute of Directors and  the China UK Business  Development Centre.

His long career in the financial services has spanned ship and export credit finance at Lazard Brothers; project finance, government lending and capital raising within the Lloyds Bank group and, amongst others, as an adviser, investment fund raiser, fund structurer and independent board investment fund representative through his company, William Knight Associates Ltd. In this capacity, has operated with diverse jurisdiction including London, Hong Kong, Luxembourg and Dublin covering regulation, administration, investor relations and board formation.

He has been visiting China since 1978 when advising British Steel and he has served on  the boards of various China related investment companies including 7 years as Chairman of the  JPMorgan Chinese Investment Trust Plc and as a Director of  the FidelityAsia Values Trust. He has Chaired three Shanghai based joint ventures and a London listed, Fujian based logistics company.

 Now based in London, he has lived in Hong Kong, France, Denmark and Portugal and his banking and finance career has led to him completing business transactions on all continents..

He is a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), the Scottish Asian Institute, SOAS China Institute and the Institute of Directors. He has a First Class Post Graduate Diploma in Export Marketing  and he is a Freeman of the City of London.